Downgatebatman

 I’m getting cranky in my old age. (Not that I feel old, except when I have to get up off my knees!) So I get annoyed with some aspects of language. I have always enjoyed the English language; it’s the only one I’m reasonably fluent in. I like the way that there is always the right word to use for everything (as long as one can remember it!). And it is evolving all the time to be able to keep pace with our changing society. One sees in the media (principally the written media) from time to time that new words or terms have been added to the Standard Oxford Dictionary. For a long while in our history the “media” was only written. Then came radio, then TV and now “social media”. So changes have accelerated. One would expect that with this increased distribution of news, ideas, language, our vocabulary would have expanded enormously. But I venture to suggest it has not. So now we have “woke”. I’m not sure what that is exactly, so I guess I’m not it! But how many of you are famil...